Friday, March 26, 2010

The Mendoza of the North

In a country famous for its Malbecs, most wine lovers head to Argentina's wine capital of Mendoza for tastings and winery visits, but there is another wine producer up in the little-visited North. Cafayate is a quiet little gem of a town with dry conditions and a high altitude perfect for producing Torrontes grapes. Deliciously fruity and sweet on the nose, Torrontes is a white wine which surprises the palate with its crisp dryness. The relatively low-scale production level of most of the vineyards here, and the slight obscurity of this type of wine, mean that Cafayate is not as well-known to tourists, and as a result was easier on our pocketbook than much of Argentina. We probably would have bypassed it completely were it not for the recommendation of a fellow traveller who said that it was one of his favourite places on the continent; we agree!

The road to Cafayate:We shared a taxi with two others, which made getting to Cafayate cheaper and faster that it would have been on the bus.

We stopped for a photo-op with this toothy llama.

Quite the underbite...

Nanni Winery, the oldest winery in the town of Cafayate

After sampling all the Nanni wines, we went on a walk in search of goat cheese, another specialty of the region.

Josh tries his first Argentine steak (also his first real food after the typhoid). In Argentina, you get exactly what is on the menu: steak means steak, and as you can see, hardly any veggies to go along with it! Any side dishes must be ordered separately.

Nothing quenches a heat wave like a cup of locally produced wine ice cream

Wine museum at Vasija Secreta Winery

Our hotel room key: Argentina has a delightful abundance of old-fashioned style keys which vastly outnumber their modern counterparts.

Finca de las Nubes WineryThe vineyard owners claimed that rocks such as this one, which were scattered around the property, were used as mortars by an ancient indigenous culture.

More delicious wine and cheese! Note the bottle of soda water in the back, an important part of any Argentine meal.

Etchart WineryEtchart is one of the bigger wine names in Cafayate, producing thousands of bottles each day. Most of the wineries we visited have relatively small production levels, and their wines are only available in the Salta area, but Etchart wines are sold all over Argentina as well as being exported.

Welcome to our travel blog. Our amazing trip through Latin America came to an end in December 2009 and we are currently living in Australia. However, we will continue to publish posts every few days until we are caught up.

Favourites

Our route

View Josh and Laura´s Journey in a larger map
An interactive map of our route to date. Our Google map account seems to be a little overloaded now so to see our entire route click "View Josh and Laura's Journey in a larger map." You may alternatively click and drag this mini map to see where we are now. While our photos are typically months behind we tend to keep the map relatively current.
Blue lines are by bus or carRed lines are by boatGreen lines are by foot or bikeOrange lines are by trainPurple lines are by planePlacemarkers represent places where we have spent at least one night.